Corey Reynolds
Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), head of the LAPD's Priority Homicide Division, continues to cope with high-profile murders, higher-profile suspects, and the downright hostility of her coworkers and superiors in Season Two of The Closer. Determining much of the drama this season are the ever-growing romantic difficulties between Brenda and her unit's FBI liason Fritz (Jon Tenney). There is also a pivotal--and very bloody--moment in the midseason episode "No Good Deed",when Priority Homicide's headquarters are nearly reduced to rubble by a frenzied shoot-out. In the season opener "Blue Blood", the murder of an off-duty cop forces Brenda to forestall an important decision involving Fritz. "Mom Duty" finds Brenda bending the rules to the breaking point in order to interrogate the members of a sequestered jury in the middle of a mob trial. In "Slipping", a homicide on the USC campus puts a damper on a visit from Brenda's mom. Brenda herself begins exhibiting stranger behavior than usual in the wake of a restauranteur's murder in "Aftertaste". Two of Brenda's associates, Andy Flynn (Anthony Dennison) and Det. Lt. Provenza (G.W. Bailley), endanger the future of the unit by spending too much time at sporting events in "Protect and Serve". In "Out of Focus", a stalker who specializes in shadowing other stalkers is killed. A possible pregnancy weighs heavily upon Brenda's mind as she investigates the grisly murder of a porn star in "Head Over Heels". In "Criticial Missing", a serial killer could be involved in the alleged suicide of two Japanese women. A small boy may not be guilty of murder, but the kid's mom may know more than she's letting on, in "Heroic Measures". Then follows the aforementioned "No Good Deed", itself followed by "Overkill", in which a reluctant Fritz must act as peacemaker between Brenda and another FBI agent. The two-part season finale "Serving the King" finds Brenda, forced to take administrative leave, going undercover on her own to root out a possible terrorist--even while her longtime adversary Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett) is pulling strings to break up the Priority Homicide Division. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyra Sedgwick, J.K. Simmons, (more)
No sooner has transplanted Atlantan Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) arrived in Los Angeles to assume her duties as deputy police chief of the LAPD's Priority Homicide Division that she is plunged into a bizarre murder case--which, like all those that will follow, is embarrassingly high-profile. Season One of The Closer also establishes that there is no love lost between the abrasive, temperamental Brenda and her coworkers, who don't so much resent her for being a woman than for the infuriating fact that her brash behavior and unorthodox methods always yield results. The season's remaining twelve episodes include "About Face", in which the murder of a supermodel brings Brenda literally face-to-face with the Hollywood scene, phony tinsel and all. In "The Big Picture", the victim is a Russian call girl with a list of celebrity clients. Latino gang members are apparently being picked off one by one by a well-trained military sniper in "Show Yourself". "Flashpoint" involves a murder motived by corporate intrigue in the pharamaceutical industry, but Brenda finds that media scrutiny of her checkered past is more troublesome than the case at hand. In "Fantasy Date", Brenda's team embarks upon an odyssey into the seamy underworld of S&M to find the rapist-killer of a congressman's daughter. The only witness to the murder of a much-despised judge is the victim's autistic son in "Batter Up". In "The Butler Did It", Brenda faces the double whammy of a wealthy and fatally dysfunctional family, and an apparent deliberately freeze-out by her own superiors. In "Good Housekeeping", Brenda's zeal to bring a murderer to justice threatens to cost her her job, while I "LA Woman", Brenda's romance with FBI agent Fritz (Jon Tenney) is jeopardized when they both probe the deaTH of an Iranian businessman. The plot complications "Fatal Retraction" include the premature release of a convicted murderer, a victim whose identity is a mystery, and the possibility of evidence tampering within Brenda's own department. And finally, in "Standards and Practices", an unknown antagonist sabotages Brenda's career as she tracks down clues in the murder of a film producer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyra Sedgwick, J.K. Simmons, (more)
Shot almost entirely on a two-and-a-half-story recreation of a full-size operating airport terminal, this romantic comedy from director Steven Spielberg revolves around an Eastern European man by the name of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), whose plans of immigrating to New York were hastened by a violent coup in his home country. Unfortunately, Viktor finds himself on the wrong end of a nasty technicality while en route to America: His passport was issued from a country, which, during its upheaval, ceased to exist in an official capacity. Unauthorized to leave Kennedy Airport upon his arrival and unable to return home, Viktor finds himself exiled inside the terminal's international transit lounge. Though airport official Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) views Viktor as an annoying bureaucratic glitch, other airport employees -- including a beautiful flight attendant by the name of Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) -- come to see him as a welcome, if unofficial, addition to their numbers. As the days stretch on into months, the terminal transforms from an intimidating atmosphere of forced assimilation into a country within itself, complete with culture, ambition, status, complex diversity, and the need for love. The supporting cast includes Diego Luna, Chi McBride, Kumar Pallana, Zoe Saldana, Eddie Jones, and Jude Ciccolella. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, (more)
